Missing 10-year-old boy who recently underwent kidney transplant found safe: Sheriff
Authorities said a missing 10-year-old boy who recently underwent a kidney transplant and needed medication has been found safe following an "urgent" search.
Mason Combs was last seen leaving a friend's house in Clallam County and running into a wooded area at approximately 4 p.m. local time on Tuesday, according to the local sheriff's office.
He was found safe on Wednesday, the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office said.
"Thank you to all the wonderful volunteers and First Responders who searched diligently for Mason!! He’s been located safe and sound," the sheriff's office said in an update on social media while sharing a photo of the child holding a bottle of water.
No additional details were provided.
Mason had been reported missing by his family on Tuesday, according to Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Undersheriff Lorraine Shore.
"Mason needs medication for a recent kidney transplant and was only wearing a t-shirt and pants with no jacket," the Clallam County Sheriff's Office said in a social media post on Wednesday.
Without his medication, which he did not have Tuesday night, Mason could pass out, Shore told Seattle ABC affiliate KOMO.
"We are extremely concerned. We consider this to be an urgent search," Shore told KOMO amid the search. "We are deploying all assets. Our entire focus is on finding this child."
More than 30 people from multiple agencies aided in the search, which included an aerial search by helicopter and drones, Shore said. K9 teams were also searching buildings and ponds, the sheriff's office said.
Residents were urged to check their outbuildings, ponds and property for Mason, the sheriff's office said.
"This is a very rural area, people have a lot of outbuildings, they have a lot of places that a child could hide," Shore told KOMO. "He might be passed out."
Mason and his family are from North Carolina and have been in Clallam County for the past two weeks, according to Shore.
Mason's desperate wait for a life-changing kidney transplant was featured in a November 2023 report by Raleigh station WRAL.
His mother told the station at the time that he was having dialysis multiple times a week after having both kidneys removed.
